Liberian Folktale Finely Retold with the Others to Be Successful in Life, As Families This Liberian Tale Is Clever, Humorous and Ac‐ and Communities Must Also

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Liberian Folktale Finely Retold with the Others to Be Successful in Life, As Families This Liberian Tale Is Clever, Humorous and Ac‐ and Communities Must Also

Won-Ldy Paye, Margaret H. Lippert. Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia. Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002. 28 pp. $16.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8050-6570-1. Reviewed by Jo M. Sullivan Published on H-AfrTeach (October, 2002) Liberian Folktale Finely Retold with the others to be successful in life, as families This Liberian tale is clever, humorous and ac‐ and communities must also. companied by colorful illustrations. As described This is a retelling, where authors and illustra‐ by the authors, this is a story from the Dan people tors have creative license. It is unfortunate, how‐ of northeastern Liberia, a small country on the ever, that they did not make the eﬀort to be more west coast of Africa. Paye is a Liberian and a authentic. To my knowledge, there are no cherries trained storyteller. Lippert is a teacher who has in West Africa and using a local fruit would have collected and published many folk stories. These been just as easy. In addition, a note on the back two have collaborated on other stories. cover states that the illustrator was inspired "by This original and educational tale engages the Asafo fags of the Fante people from coastal with the frst words, "Long ago, Head was all by Ghana." The art and artifacts of the Dan of Liberia himself" (p. 2). As it turns out, head, arms, legs, are well documented in African art literature and and body were not together and could not accom‐ in museums and could have complemented this plish basic tasks. For example, head met arms story well. when he was trying to eat cherries from a tree. Children will enjoy reading this book them‐ When they attached themselves and worked to‐ selves, or listening as it is read aloud. gether, they were able to pick and eat the cher‐ ries. This is followed by body bouncing by and lat‐ er legs joining the others. Each encounter begins with humor and miscommunication and ends with cooperation. Liberian families use such tales to amuse chil‐ dren and to teach them about cooperation. Each part of the body is important and needs to work H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-afrteach Citation: Jo M. Sullivan. Review of Paye, Won-Ldy; Lippert, Margaret H. Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia. H-AfrTeach, H-Net Reviews. October, 2002. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6844 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2.

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